Jolla at MWC 2017: wrap up

A few weeks ago we had one of our best ever Mobile World Congress (MWC) experiences. Exciting announcements, heaps of fun, all pointing to a bright future for Jolla in 2017!

This year at MWC we had a dedicated Sailfish OS booth in Hall 5, which was literally packed with people at all time. Visitors from different nations, organizations, websites, YouTube and TV channels visited us to check out our progress, our latest achievements and news. Our Russian licensing partner Open Mobile Platform also participated to the show presenting their company, and demoing the new Sailfish OS device, Inoi R7.

On top of that, our community was as present as ever, helping us out promoting Sailfish OS professionally to the crowd. We honestly couldn’t have made the show as good as it was without our community’s help. Thanks for your contribution!

One other amazing thing that made everyone happy at the booth was the many folks visiting us already owning a Jolla device, be it the first Jolla phone or the limited Jolla C.

All in all it was a great show! Let’s recap here what we had on show.

Sailfish China consortium

One of this year’s exciting announcements was the birth of the Sailfish China consortium. Jolla has signed a licensing agreement with a new consortium, which gives them exclusive rights to further develop a Chinese operating system based on Sailfish OS. This variant of Sailfish OS will be based on solutions for e.g. secure smartphones, the automotive industry, TV, IoT and smartwatches.

This has been a long term plan for us here at Jolla – for all these years we have been aiming to enter the Chinese market with our operating system. With 250 million USD targeted to be raised and invested into Sailfish OS ecosystem in China, this is definitely the right path for us to take entering the big market of China.

Mr. Shan Li, one of the leading private equity investors, and leader of the consortium in China says that China needs its own operating system. He has been a witness of other Chinese operating systems and projects fail over time and has been following the development of Sailfish OS closely since the beginning while being impressed by the steady progress of the operating system over the years. “There are already several major Chinese companies interested to join this consortium,” he comments.

Our Chairman Antti Saarnio also comments on the matter by bringing Russia up as an example that took Sailfish OS last year and implemented it in less than 6 months with Jolla’s support and is being successfully developed further. Furthermore he comments in the press release: “China has tried building their own OS based on Android, but without success. Building China’s national operating system strategy on code, which is controlled by others, is like building your house on sand. It looks promising in the beginning, but in the long term it won’t last.” This exclusive license will offer a fast and easy path for China to build their independent operating system.

Sony Open Devices Program

One of the most interesting news at this year’s MWC was the announcement of a collaboration between Jolla and Sony Open Devices Program. This collaboration will eventually bring official Sailfish OS support to Sony Xperia devices.

We are aiming to release official support for Sailfish OS on a leading hardware platform with great specifications and amazing build quality for our community and of course as potential HW platform for our licensing customers. The first project we are undertaking is Sony Xperia X, which we also showed at our booth this year.

Our CEO Sami Pienimäki commented that we’re aiming to make the Sony Xpreria X a follower community device for Jolla C.

Following that up, Karl-Johan Dahlström, Director at Sony Developer Program further comments that their open-source platform supports innovation and development with the aim of building the strongest ecosystem possible with unique software experiences. “Collaborating with Jolla will only serve to further strengthen that offering,” he adds.

Jala

The name surely reminds you of “Jolla”, but considering the company is from South America, the pronunciation is rather different. Jala Group is a Bolivian company aiming to make South America technologically independent by investing in Sailfish OS and implementation of it in the region. Their first Sailfish based device is called Accione, which will be a “low-cost hi-tech” smartphone according to Jala.

Mr. Jorge Lopez, founder and CEO of Jala Group, who was our guest during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, commented on this collaboration and said: “Jolla’s Sailfish OS is a real alternative to Android for our needs in Latin America.” He also mentioned Russia as a country with advanced technological development opting in and implementing Sailfish OS as their native operating system because of the openness provided by Sailfish OS, which brings control over the whole OS especially the security features bringing technological independence with it.

Mr. Lopez and our CEO Sami Pienimäki had speeches at our booth during the show explaining Sailfish OS and their partnership to the exhibitors.

Sailfish Watch Demo

Aside from all the big news, we all had smartwatches strapped on our wrists running Sailfish OS. Our Sailfish watch prototype is a showcase about the scalability of our OS. Our designers and engineers made it work in a very short amount of time in late 2016. The feedback from our watch demos was brilliant every time we showed the watch to journalists and/or people who visited the booth. What would you like to happen with the Sailfish watch?

Lots of fun

This year, like previous years, we were at Barcelona with our beloved community. Each year, we want to dedicate a bunch of tickets for our community. We handpick some of the key members so they can experience Mobile World Congress and sail alongside us during those 4 wonderful days.

Our community helps us so much each year at the booth by being there, demoing and promoting Sailfish OS to the exhibitors and generally helping us make the booth more interesting and the “after work” more fun!

Here are some mixed photos of our rather amusing 4 days in Barcelona with Sailfish Community:

Escalator Selfie

MWC 2017 with sailors & the community

Group photo before closing the booth

Metro Selfie

Restaurant Selfie

Group photo with Sailors and the community

Amazing community members

Our busy booth

Another metro station selfie

We would like to deeply thank our community members who were there with us, bringing joy to our booth and helping us out with anything and everything. We also would like to thank everyone who supported us online by spreading the news about our great progress this year. We wouldn’t be able to pull it of without our amazing community!

Peace and love,
James Noori, on behalf of Jolla team.

James Noori

Community Manager at Jolla. Gadget geek. Open source supporter and advocate. Long time Jolla blogger in a third party blog. Ready to change the world with unique and unusual alternatives!

92 Comments

Dave999
on March 21, 2017 at 4:48 pm

LOTs off good stuff indeed. But not a Word about the refund. If you dont intend to do a full refund, then you should atleast have the curtesy to tell your backers. It’s like 3 years ago since you took the money.

Sorry to break it to you, but not everybody here is as obsessed with the second refund as you are.

How many times does James have to tell you that they’ll announce additional information when it becomes available? Complaining about it in the comments to every… single… blog… post… helps as much as when kids start going “Are we there yet?” every few seconds when you’re on your way to grandma’s.

You do realise that we’re only about 2,5 months into the year and the last update on the subject was about 1,5 months ago?

Seriously, how often do you actually want updates on the subject if you’re already getting impatient when there’s still 9,5 months of the year left and it was 1,5 months since the last announcement? If you really thought an update a year was enough then they’re covered for this year, but of us know that it’s not true.

No info from the man in charge. Just a note what jolla aming to do the refund 2017 would be enough.
I can agree that is strange to ask every second month, but it’s equally strange to not End a project that should have ended 3 years ago and no one knows how many more years we have to wait.

No info from the man in charge? It was the CEO of the company that wrote in this blog 1,5 months ago that they’re going to go trough with the second refund as soon their financial situation permits it and that they’re aiming for this to happen in 2017.

The tablet project itself ended long ago and they’ve made it abundantly clear. What’s left are the refunds and those are only held back by the fact that they can’t afford to finish them and stay afloat at the same time right now.

Just face it, you’re obsessed with getting your second refund and it’s not just getting annoying for everyone else, it’s been annoying for anyone else for the better part of a year. Looking at the fact that you’ve posted a comment to this effect to every single Jolla blog post on the same day the post is put up for at least a year makes it’s pretty clear how obsessed you are with getting your second refund.

You don’t remember that he said they’re hoping to get the second refund done in 2017? You posted a comment to that article (on the day it was posted as per your usual MO) where you said that you thought it was a good thing the second refund is coming so soon.

@ L_A_G
Even when I agree with you in general, I dare to remind you that it is Jolla owing Dave999 some money and overused trust, and not vice versa.
However with all my heart I am happy with them still this is their “Demockles sword” and it is up to them when and how Jolla will solve it.
For those who don’t care that may seems to be an obsession, but for some amount paid for Jolla products is quite a big money, and unless an item is not delivered still this is somebody’s money.

They failed, or let company felt in a trap, so now they have “to drink beer they made”.

And note that this is not only Dave999 – wherever in the net happens any discussion then ALWAYS appear a comment “not trusted” becuse “don’t keep promises e.g. not refunded tablet”. So, this is not an obsession but something what every Sailfish enthusiast/fan etc. must explain even when don’t have anything to say about this. Of course it is the argument also used for competition purposes and intentionally.

Still yet problem has not been solved. So there is nothing else to do like suffer in quiet claims like Dave999 – just because he is right. And community is not only for good times and celebrations but also for worse times and solving problems. Would you prefer all unhappy to put case to the court against Jolla? Much worse scenario I think.

When it comes down to it, Jolla doesn’t actually owe Dave or any of the backers anything. Crowdfunding is not the same as buying a finished product, it’s investing in a company to finish a product and if you invest enough you get the product (and/or other things) as a form of dividends.

Like any other investment, a crowdfunding campaign can end in failure and everyone losing their money. In this case Jolla could have delivered the tablets their contract manufacturer not taken a good chunk of the parts Jolla couldn’t get any more of as payment for unpaid bills without even asking them if it’s ok.

When it comes down to it the complaining really is just a mix of greed and stupidity. Jolla spent the money on making the product and unfortunately they weren’t able to deliver. Any refunds are literally just them giving their own money to the backers and you should be happy that they care enough about their investors. However you really shouldn’t expect them to do this specially when we’re talking about a company that’s only now starting to have a positive cash flow.

Crowdfunding is collecting money for investment – yes, but if deal fails then money are be refunded, unless it was told and agreed and clear for both sides that money will be lost in such a case.

This is a meter of trust and good name of company. Crowdfunding is based on trust in a company, here Jolla, and demand for a new product.

Here crowdfunding was for starting manufacturing tablets.

And if Jolla don’t want (I am sure of that) negative PR then simply must refund it sooner (better) or later – there are no doubts about that. Otherwise it would be overusing of community members.

It is not any good will of Jolla, it is Jolla’s duty in relations with community which made Jolla was able to survive. Unless Jolla do not want to sacrifice its community and those relations of course.

I disagree with you L_A_G – crowdfunding is a public agreement based on trust with specified but future aims. And here aims were clear: that was delivery of tablets to bakers, for Jolla money was to allow them financing Sailfish adaptation for tablet, manufacturing and delivery.

If you think that your post could stop demands for refunding, then you are completely wrong – no such an option, forget it.

You really ought to read the terms of service on crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo… Because they pretty clearly state that you’re always going to be running a risk of having the project you’ve invested money in fail on you and lose all the money you invested.

The language on this is pretty darn clear. If a project fails, the company/group behind the project has no obligation to return any of they money if they’ve actually spent it. I think Kickstarter requires them to present the investors with a breakdown of where the money went, but that’s it.

If you’ve looked at any other crowdfunding failures you’ll know that getting even part of your money back is exceedingly rare. Even when it’s been spent on anything but what was laid down in the original pitch. So the fact that they spent a lot of that money on creating SailfishOS 2.0 is completely above board.

When you invest into crowdfunding projects you really have very few protections. The only case you may have an argument to get at least some of your money back is if they spend it booze and hookers, but in this case they spent it on pretty exactly what the pitch said they would spend it on.

@L_A_G Also, all this moaning about “they spent money on SFOS 2.0 instead of the tablet” is bizarre and close to ‘alternative facts’. First of all, the total cost of the project was much more than what Jolla gained from the crowd funding campaign. So if the total cost of the project was divided between hardware and software, it dosn’t say much about what the majority of the money from the crowdfunding was spent on.
More important, SFOS2.0 was an integral part of the tablet project. The funny thing is that a lot of what was introduced in SFOS 2.0 doesn’t work all that well on the phones. Basically what we have now is a tablet-OS running on the phone. Still, those people suggest that Jolla took their money to improve the OS for the phone.

No they don’t. It’s as simple as that. There’s no legal title for that. All there is is a statement by Jolla along the lines of “We feel sorry. Therefore, based on good will, our current intention is to send you some money to make up for the inconvenience. We’re not sure if we’ll be able to send it at all, nor do we know when we’ll be able to send it, but we’ll try.”

@ L_A_G @Ossi
OK, perhaps I am wrong. In crowdfunding I’ve taken part and failed the whole money were returned fully.
I ought to read terms IndieGoGo again to verify what is stated there.

Anyway still I think that for Jolla costs of not refunding will be much much higher in total then costs of refunding.

If Jolla would finished as bankrupt – perhaps that would be forgiven and justified. But when Jolla is reaching profitability then either ought to reanimate project and deliver the tablet to those who want, or to refund it fully.

Just because that was not tablet project what failed (there are delivered tablets which are OK) but Jolla management & operations which have lead to not secured resources needed for financing the tablet. I can imagine that “Scandinavians” have believed/trusted to much somebody who has overused their trust, just like Nokia with Elop. Anyway still that means it was not any “higher force” but wrong decisions. And not failed project but the company fault.

Options (IMHO):

So IMHO either tablets ought to be delivered (e.g. in small parties until all will be delivered)

or full money refunded (e.g. the rest of money can be refunded be 10-20% every year until all interested in would be satisfied)

or rest of not refunded money turned into a partial payment for Jolla C eventually nearest similar device in a predictable future to be available e.g. betatested smart-watch or Aqua Fish or Sony or INOI etc. or something that I even don’t know about

or by transparently expressed will of some bakers turned into donation for further development (and some bakers have expressed such a will already, those who want and can effort for this)

or clear statement “we will not refund anything more” and eat the sh…ty consequences of sacrificing relations with community in favour to some money (I hope it will not happen ever <8-O ). Of course also everyone can pretend everything is OK and do nothing, but I am afraid Dave999 will not let it happen.

There are possibilities and options, and good will among bakers. It is a question of "how turn the fiasco into a success", not only how to minimise damages I think.

Yes, this can be a financial pain, this is a meter of choice – what is more important?

What they’re doing right now is the best that they can do without becoming completely insolvent (which would put a complete halt to all of the company’s activities). You keep acting as if they spent all the money on booze and hookers and aren’t giving any of the money back when this is anything but the truth. They don’t have to pay anyone back, but they’re still doing their best to do so while staying alive as a company.

Also, we’re talking about profitability in the sense that they *think* they’re going to get more money in than they’ve paid out this year. That most certainly doesn’t mean they’ve got the necessary money just lying around and let’s not forget that they’ve obviously got quite a lot of debts they’re actually legally obligated to pay back.

You’ve essentially just got the completely wrong attitude here. Jolla is under no obligation to refund anyone, but they still to do their best to do that without destroying the company in the process. To people like you and Dave this may not be enough, but acting the way you do when the facts of the matter are factored in just makes you look like a pair of entitled brats.

Good damn.. I would like to buy and have it for my Jolla C. In fact, I have wanted it since Jolla promoted it last year. I won’t like to wait it not too long anymore. We do have allready all necessary for low energy bluetooth in our Jolla phones.

Just a question about the official Sailfish OS support for Xperia device:

Will it be possible to flash you own device or will you have to buy a pre-flashed device from Jolla ?

I actually hope that both will be possible, as pre-flashed devices make Sailfish OS easily accessible in general while using your own device makes Sailfish OS accessible to all owners of supported Xperia devices.

It is yet to be decided how we will make Sailfish OS available for the Xperia X. We are trying to make it available both ways, through purchasing a pre-installed Sailfish OS device or flashing your own Xperia X. We will get back to you with an official statement regarding this matter by the end of Q2.

I’m glad to read this wrap-up as it was a little more difficult than before to collect all the pieces of information this year.

Howerever, I have to admit that my excitement about all of these future plans and announced cooperations is still at a manageable level. We’ve seen soooo many such announcements in the past (SSH, Mi-Fone, South Africa,…) – I think it might be best to ignore the press releases until there’s a visible result coming from all of these cooperations.

It was really sad to see no announcement related to HMD/Nokia devices. Xperias are ok with quality but seems ugly for me. No to mention glass cover of my wife’s Xperia Z was broken so many times I have extra discount at the repair shop…

How real is for it to happened?
Nokia phone and Sailfish?
I don’t think HMD and Jolla will merge until Sailfish proves it has a future or at least a good shot at it which could be realized merging with HMD.
I believe HMD has future but I’m not sure about Sailfish.
Now. How do you support Nokia + Sailfish?
I “don’t” care for Nokia + android.
I would rather buy some Chinese flagship killer android at low price.
I can’t believe tho, that HMD would revive Nokia just to sell it as another android or to take it from Windows hands.
Windows phone has better future than Nokia android.
In my opinion, there is no future for Nokia android phone. Off course it would sell. You can sell a jar of Elvis spirit in it.

We completely understand your concerns. However, this year is hopefully a stronger year than the rest. We are no a more established company, we know now how and where to find allies and our ambition is bringing life to new devices.
Regarding our collaboration with Sony, that is literally being worked on as we speak, ironing out bugs and making it a usable device for day-to-day operation + extra features that the Sony device has. Meanwhile the sales team is working on a great deal for the community.

Jala is another case which I personally am sure that will happen. Yes it is only in South America but that only gives it more reason to happen. The CEO of Jala is a very ambitious man who has made his own millions from the ground up and is looking to change the South American market from a consumer market to a market which manufactures its own needs in terms of mobile phones. They have very high import taxes there and that’s why it will be an extremely great opportunity to manufacture affordable smartphones with a new concept (Sailfish OS) for the market. Their team is very dedicated, so that one is happening as well!

Regarding Sailfish China, that one is also a plan that we have been working on since Jolla was a thing. We didn’t announce anything until everything was concrete. I can’t give you more details than what’s on the article already. I can however see with my own eyes that it is progressing as it should. China is a difficult market as you know and progress will not be as fast.

OMP has been working with us for quite a long time now in Russia and they are now providing Sailfish OS RUS to Inoi which is manufacturing INOI R7 as we speak – available to pre-order in Russia.

So everything that we announced this year is either already happening like INOI or will happen in the near future and is being worked on like Sony.

> We are no[w] a more established company, we know now how and where to find allies

This is more great news!

But, when can we expect to have an update on when backers will be fully refunded?

I personally only hold a grudge so long as Jolla is using my tablet contribution as a free loan. If you were to follow through on the long promised, yet unrealised, full refund, it would go a long way toward restoring faith in your ability to promise AND deliver.

I was hoping to see an HMD device with SailfishOS, but I guess I’ll settle for an Xperia one despite never being all that big of a fan of Sony/Ericsson phones.

Still, it would be nice if you could clarify how or if the device will ship with SailfishOS pre-loaded. Are we going to get limited quantity of pre-loaded devices sold straight from the website like the Jolla C, is there going to be a device with SailfishOS that isn’t limited quantity or is just going to be us installing disc images provided by you?

The communication on this subject has so far been pretty vague and rather confusing, as if concrete plans haven’t been made yet.

I think everybody should call or mail just a local Sony representative asking: “When and where can I buy a Sony Sailfish device?” Only if local representatives will pass to HQ some questions and will report a demand on markets, then only Sony will try to launch a device, not only allow to download it. Ask SONY and request a Sailfish device from them. That must appear in their internal marketing reports – I think there is no other way to make it happen. And ask you operator about such device also in the same way.

Guys! Forget about HMD. HMD Devices are Foxconn – it has nothing to share with the previous Nokias, like N900, N9 or even E-Series.
I had Nokia N1 Tablet – Good specs, but locked down bootloader, no sources, no support. Sony Xperia would be much better HW for SailfishOS

The reason that our communication seemed vague and confusing regarding the Sony collaboration is that we are still in negotiations and we do not want to promise something we aren’t sure about. We are considering a lot of options (To name a few, we are considering single or dual-boot devices, devices available pre-loaded with Sailfish OS, an image to flash on current Xperia X devices and more) none of these options are yet to be 100% confirmed by either side (Sony Open Devices and Jolla) therefore we have promised to have something to offer by the end of Q2.

I am really happy Jolla is reaching an equilibrium again. That is good news.

The question is: is it really balance only good impression? Do Jolla have long term plans or only jump from stopped fire to another fire?

That reflection has come to my mind when I asked about VoLTE and I was reminded that Sailfish roadmap is hells know where and what. From one hand: no premisses, no disappointment. From the other hand: I expect Jolla will irrevocably confirm meritocracy (in 100%) and driving by community demands at last in 50% of operations. 50% cause I suppose demands from gvts or new partners will consume a company power like more used CPU power. But if because of dealing with big entities Jolla will loose its DNA built by single persons like me, Dave, Zlutor, Ossi, Javis, Sts, Carol, bakers or whoever else from community members – then will loose the kind of magic that allow us to believe in Jolla and has allowed Jolla to be free, independent and sailing. That is about foundations, brainwashing, soda/sparkling wine bubbles and reflection: Jolla, what will you do with gained success and balance?

P.S.
And also among other questions: What is current roadmap/sailmap?
So, what is date of Sailfish VoLTE upgrade?
Let me remind you Jolla: you are where you are because you were following community indications, demands, begging etc., and not because anything else I suppose. This is what you are sailing for. Am I right?

We are where we are because of our amazing community. We thank each and everyone of you for your feedback and support throughout the years. Community was, is and will be the heart of Jolla/Sailfish OS.

As for roadmap, we have said a few times already that it is unlikely for us to have a proper roadmap present as we are now working for our customers (Such as OMP, Intex, etc) and they don’t want these information to be public, not through us anyway. Therefore we can’t promise a roadmap at the moment. Just to elaborate: Imagine if OMP wants a new feature from us, they are a paying customer and they would like that feature for Sailfish OS RUS, if we announce that we are going to make that feature available, that is kinda stealing OMP’s thunder, isn’t it? So understandably, we just deliver and they will announce in their own way. That process stays true for every other customer case as well.

VoLTE is not planned yet, again something we have been saying for a long time. It is not yet our priority to make VoLTE happen. It wouldn’t make financial sense in our current situation. It of course will be a priority in the future – can’t tell when.

P.s: We are doing our best to keep our community involved and not to lose any DNA. Yes we have changed our strategy but that is only to survive in the business world which is understandable; but we are not planning to lose any DNA!

BUT as “investments into the SFOS ecosystem” were mentioned, a not insignificant number of apps ( which not at least serve as selling arguments ) could evolve limited/adapted to Chinese markets/policy requirements … which in turn could turn out undesirable to other parts of the world limiting SFOSes arguments to CN.

Clauses to the deal regulating synergetic cooperation highly appreciated therefore – if not too late ….

A”flavour” for RU or CN can have really different meaning then for us, I am afraid. A number of apps is function of number of active SFOS devices and customers willing to buy apps – developers lives from that.

Clauses and agreements – yes, of course. And may they are better working then those with the tablet project. This is exactly like with being a virgin: keep it or forget it, but can’t both together, and both have follow up and consequences of chosen option.

Sailfish OS stays fundamentally the same, just like it did with Sailfish OS RUS which is the Russian version of Sailfish OS for the Russian market. This one will be focused on the Chinese market but is highly unlikely to become a spin-off.

Nice summary for those not following MWC closely – I was just looking for something like this!

One thing that doesn’t seem to be covered much in MWC news is app-content. I had a look at the Jolla harbor top apps just now and the top is same or almost same as three years ago with some of the top apps not working at all (e.g. Friends stopped working a couple of years ago after some Facebook API update).

Now that devices are going to come is there anything planned on the app-content side?
Or is it going to be the purely licensees’ problem to get content for their devices?
Or maybe Android apps are going to be the primary solution while Ssilfish’es main value is to be “we do not send everything to NSA”?

The Jolla Store in generally sorely needs improvements – aside from the main complaint – paid app support, there are also other issues:

- no web version of the store – you can’t even see what apps are available in the store without having a Sailfish OS device!
- no notification on new comments for developers – you have to periodically check yourself and answer on the device (as there is no web version…)
- limited number of allowed libraries and APIs, with no clear roadmap/timeframe when more will be allowed
- it would be useful if multiple packages could be added for a single app – would make application updates more efficient & bundling cleaner

On the other hand, the Jolla Store QA is pretty fast these days, which is definitely nice.

As for the application situation, we (still) currently lack enough resources to do much. However, a few things are on going: 1. OMP in Russia is promoting Sailfish development, having courses in universities and bringing devs into the Sailfish OS ecosystem, 2. Newer devices are coming which is definitely a big help (INOI R7, Jala devices and of course Sony Xperia), 3. Our new partner in China is planning to promote Sailfish OS development in China soon. Additionally, we release Jolla C as a developer/community limited edition device so that our current developers are happy. We also are continuing with community webinars regarding app development and more.

More than that is of course going to be done when we have more resources.

Considering current trends: the next Sailfish device should have at last 32GB store + 3GBRAM (if not four), a radio compatible with next year changes in broadcasting. And also VoLTE built in OS. I think so.

That would be a serious threat for Sailfish OS as such if would happen a local version Sailfish but not compatible with normal Sailfish OS used in the rest of the World. That would start uncontrolled mess, similar to mess in Android or Symbian versions – and that would be unacceptable IMHO.

How can you be so ridiculous?
How can you gain again trust and success without completing the refunds?

For the PATH to success you have few simple steps:
1. REFUND the tablet fiasco to gain trust
2. Review Sailfish licence licence
3. Open source code. By this the Sailfish OS will be ported not only on Sony xperia X, but also on other devices and the stability and popularity will be increased a lot. Check Android how the succeed.
4. Enjoy

re1 – OK, no doubts
re2 – What do you mean? What for? Aim?
re3 – You are wrong I am afraid. Android in fact is closed source, and very similar model to exactly Jolla. Open source is only AOSP which is different story, now AOSP seems to be used by HMD Global (Nokia) to built their empire. And BTW: every Android has built in patents from which Microsoft has fees/royalties so they make money on each such a mobile with Android. So here I don’t agree with you. Anyway, you can use NEMO project to use in Sailfish OS only open sourced element, if you really want to do it, just instead closed source elements in Sailfish OS. Already there are others who follow this way and can help you. MER etc, is compatibly.
re 4 – Enjoy is also OK

Good news on MWC 2017 would have been:
The jolla shop is open to take your order
of a high-end device that is delivered today!
That would be an announcement that counts… all the other news are nice to read, but that’s it!
I can remember similar announcement from the tablet project: “from the end of May until June delivery will start…” ; Now we can read again:
“Sony devices will be available in end of Q2 2017″.
Hey man, who really believes that?

@Awkward-user
Well put sir, thank you for trying to explain the stubborn fan boys like L_A_G and our clown ossi1967 how this world works.

I would like to urge you to not spend any more energy in these two very special persons.

Sometimes mother nature makes some mistakes and creates people like these, they do not have any sympathy or other empathetic feelings about others and how the world around them works.
They only value their own good, and money has no value to them other than buying pretty phones and porn.

Trying to convince them only feeds their hunger of knowing it all better than everybody else.

So while everyone else has it concerns about the Jolla refund debacle they only care for more Jolla Porn and hate everyone else who does not.

I also vallue my money just like Dave 999 and will not rest before all backers have received their money back.

Until than my advise just ignbnore L_A_G_ and Clown Ossi1967 as I have been told never to argue with idiots, they will drag you down to their level and will beat you with experience.

@Maikel needs a full refund !
Well, you know I am stubborn Jolla fan boy and net clown also, and only trying to understand how this world works.

Without any doubts I am not all-knowing and also I am not always right. If I would not pay attention when others points me my mistakes then I would be against my own efforts to explain to the others anything. I fact I am essentially thankful all who spend their time correcting me or pointing me my failures, as this saves my time, allows me to know more and getting better in general, meaning selfimprovement.

Mother nature use own evolutional algorithms and has created all of us special persons including me and you, not only them. I don’t want to judge who is having a sympathy or other empathetic feelings about others and who does not, because I do not want to be judged. The same about value of own good, money and buying anything. However I think those who only value own good and money don’t sacrifice their time for this forum, this project, SailfishOS and Jolla.

Everyone has the right to his own opinion, but no one has the right to impose his opinion on others. I would like to have true and convincing arguments which will useful for good of us all. And because of that it is important for me to understood those who don’t agree with me and why they don’t, as simply they can be right.

I also think we ought to admit a good will to Jolla. And to notice there is also an option where Jolla can say “We both have undertaken a risk with equal responsibility. So after failure we have paid 50% of cost so refunded 50% what is our half of risk. And the other half of risk is on you”.

I think that would be very destructive for everything what Jolla has build so far. And that is why I explain that just to prevent that would happen.

Still I think the best way is to support Jolla success what will generate money needed for refunding.

And thank you Jolla for already refunded 50%. BTW: who of those who received refunded money has told to Jolla even only “thank you”?

My Mamy don’t allow me to talk with strangers about any porn and I don’t know what is this Jolla Porn. Let’s skip it. Being bitter myself for not having Sailfish device, I assume that was expression of your disappointment.

I will not ignore anybody as that would be simply rude, I don’t want this way. Would you like me to ignore you? Bed feelings, anger, hate, or other tensions solves nothing and disturbs to see and to think clearly. And I would like nobody to ignore me either, we ought not to be so childish.

I always argue using arguments which I believe are true and fair and not hurting anybody, and you always can beat me using better argument then mine. This is what I call discussing in good faith and looking for the best possible alternative. Usually I try to get at my opponents level to have better communication with them. For me an experience is value as such, I am very happy when somebody shares with me his experiences, I feel gifted in this case, even when I disagree completely.

Finally, your post confirms my suppositions that full refunding (even very slow, made in a way that will not cause company collapse and another crisis) in long term will be much cheaper and better then dealing with lets say tensions and other side effects of not refunding fully for bakers. Some disappointed bakers will not forget and will not forgive IMHO.

Akward_user
I Think we both are completely on the same page here, we might have a different view on specific items but I completely agree with you the majority of your points.

I think this statement you made says it all and I fully agree :
“Everyone has the right to his own opinion, but no one has the right to impose his opinion on others. I would like to have true and convincing arguments which will useful for good of us all. And because of that it is important for me to understood those who don’t agree with me and why they don’t, as simply they can be right.”

As simple as this.
By the way I did thanked Jolla (more than once) as I believe in second chances etc.

I am not blind by hate or any other negative feeling, But i am allergic to lies and bullshit.

Some people (you know who you are) believe in alternative facts and are defending this with loads of bullshit , or even simpler said they are lying.

I will never give up oppose to these persons, as they create their own reality which is perfectly fine until they force their reality to other people as the truth, which it is obviously NOT.

So when the Aanti said ” it will be late but we will deliver your tablet” he made a promise.
That promise needs to be kept. That promise swiped away all arguments about crowdfunding because he then and there promised the crowdfunders that no matter what the tablet would be produced and delivered.

We all know what happened after that.

Having this said, I will not rest until A Aanti apologizes and gives uf the full and complete honest story, or he keeps his promise and deliver my tablet or if he is not able to do that my money back.

“They only value their own good”
That’s pretty much the opposite, you are the ones who want Jolla to shut down just because they still have 100$ of yours. That’s like wanting to stop a revolution just because there are some casualties (not even deaths, casualties).

“I also vallue my money”
If you really had needed those 200$, you wouldn’t have used them to buy some useless tech toy, I’m sure you can afford to wait a little bit more no?

@Sthocs Porn in principle has something to do with it as it looks better on my tablet screen than on the smaller J1. What doesn’t make sense is the assumption that I would *pay* for it. Who pays for such things these days? This Maikel character?

The work had to be don before as at MWC17 Jolla have shown and let people play with Sony mobiles working fluently under Sailfish OS, somebody has done it. Even if the Sony agreement would be done the same day it would not meter. Remember that Jolla1 was prepared from a scratch (starting from googling for any hardware) during about 1 month and 3 months before already announced launch, when motherboards provider has closed and shutdown NovaThor platform manufacturing (and all motherboards for Symbian, after Elop has cancelled already located there orders).

That would be the best case scenario that not only you but literally everyone else would be happy about, however, it doesn’t work that way for small companies in the business world. We do understand the needs of our community and we are doing everything to the best of our ability so we can deliver. But let’s not forget that we still are a small company with a little over 60 employees. That means that things get longer than they do in a company with thousands of employees! As a result of that we were unable to make everything available directly after MWC. We are working hard on each case separately with our limited resources to deliver as fast as possible.

P.s: Our discussions with Sony began in 2016 and work on Xperia X begun in the very beginning of 2017.

The consortium is aiming to invest 250 million USD into the China project. This has not happened yet and is not going to be a direct investment in Jolla. Therefore it won’t be directly paying the refunds… As I have said before, we will update you about the refunds once it is clear when exactly we are paying it back. As I have said even before that, we are definitely committed to pay the rest of your money back and we are trying our best to deliver our promise. Asking about refunds on MWC recap post is slightly irrelevant IMHO but you certainly are free to comment what you want! But please understand that we are eager to pay the money back to you. We are doing all of these news and making all of these headlines to bring money into the company in order to 1. Make the business work as it should and 2. Pay back the backers. So I would suggest you to give us time until we have a concrete update regarding the refunds.

The link with Sony intrigues me. Did Sony initiate the conversation? What will Sony get out of it? Having accepted that no high end Finnish hardware would ever be released by Jolla, and suspecting that the OS was, therefore, essentially doomed (or, at least, confined to remote world markets) this is interesting. Am I correct in thinking that I’ll be able to order a Sony device with Sailfish installed (and no Android)? If so then I might just do so (although it is a pity it’s not the high end model). But if it’s a case of buying an Android powered Sony and doing a self install then I’ve no interest. I can’t at the moment see it happening but it’d be fun to see a Sony ZXj for sale…

Great comment!
We have been in talks with Sony Open Devices since late 2016. first of all, you have to remind yourself that this is not Sony, but it is Sony Open Devices which is a division of Sony working with Open Source Projects. Their goal is to get as wide of an ecosystem on their open devices as possible. They have this “one kernel to rule them all” strategy which makes it extremely easy to work on practically all of their devices and that says a lot about the future. You see, we are now working on the Xperia X but that does not mean it is the last device from Sony that we will take over. It only is the start!
Regarding your question about having a Sony device with only Sailfish OS installed, we are working on details and negotiations with Sony so we can get back with something to announce by the end of Q2. That is most of everybody’s questions

Does “Xperia X” mean only the base X model, or the whole X family (XA, XZ, X Performance etc.)?
I mean, will it be possible to install the Sailfish OS on each one of the X family? (I need a new phone now, the old one just gave up working, and I would buy one where I can install Sailfish afterwards).

Is there an official line yet as to whether the Sony XperiaX is setup so one could flash their own phone? I see there seems to be talk of this device as some sort of ‘community edition’ but if I was to buy one say second hand off ebay, would me following the steps to flash SFOS onto it ultimately lead me to the same position as a ‘community edition’ ? I like the size and spec’s of the phone and I’d be prepared to tinker with it if the ‘very average’ linux tinkerer type could find their way round it, my motivation being, I’m only likely to get a very limited warranty for a community device anyway, and not a ‘standard’ Sony warranty…. am I right ?